I'm trying to grow good habits. Mostly in my spiritual and physical areas.
I'm wanting this blog to be my own personal journal of this growth and will share what I'm doing to do better for myself and others. There will be ramblings, 'cause that's what I do.

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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I've been seeing lots of blog post on staycationing or vacationing in/near your town. Living in the Memphis metro gives us loads of opportunities for free and cheap stuff to do this summer. Memphis is full of museums, sightseeing, parks, events. There is plenty to do if you know where to look for it.

Museums
Some of the museums in Memphis have a free or discount days so that you can enjoy their exhibits.The Pink Palace Museum
free on Tuesdays from 1pm-5pmThe Art Museum of the University of Memphis
free admission, open Monday-Saturday 9am-5pm except on university holidays and between temporary exhibits.The Dixon Gallery and Gardens
free on Saturdays from 10am-NoonMemphis Brooks Museum of Art
Pay what you can on Wednesdays. It can be a penny and up.Civil Rights Museum
free admission on Mondays after 3pm for Tennessee residentsThe Fire Museum
two for one admission on Tuesdays. Also has a family pack for up to 5 members for 20.00 with additional members being just 4.00 each.The Stax Museum
free on Tuesdays 1pm-5pm for Shelby county residents. Unfortunately I can't take advantage of this as I live 1/2 mile from the Shelby county line. Still going to put it on this list though.

Other Attractions
Here's a list of places that have free or discount days/events. Some are museum-like but I don't know if I would call them a museum.Center for Southern FolkloreThe Memphis Zoo
free on Tuesdays from 2pm to close for Tennessee residentsSouth Main District Trolley NightBeale Street
Even though Beale is like a huge night club after dark, during the day it's fairly family friendly. You can walk down have a chance to see the Beale Street Flippers, search for familiar celebrities not so familiar celebrities on the Beale street music note walk of fame, see various street performers and, of course, listen to music.Mud Island
The museum admission is not free. However, it is free to walk across and tour the riverwalk. The riverwalk is a scale model of the Mississippi river.The Levitt Shell
Free concerts on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Check the website for concert times and information.The Agricenter
sometimes has free or cheap events

Nearby PlacesHere are some places that are within a couple hour drive of MemphisFort Pillow State Park (about an hour and a half drive)Arkabutla Lake (just under an hour drive)Sardis Lake (just over an hour drive)Hatchie Wildlife Refuge (hour to hour and a half drive)
there are several other rivers and lakes near Memphis as well. Just do a quick search and you'll find them.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

In lew of actually doing something productive(such as cleaning/organizing my home) on my time off of classes, I've been finding other things to do. For example, I sent off a dishcloth I knitted for a dishcloth swap I participated in. A couple days late but it's on its way to California now. Doing this swap got me to thinking...I really like to do swaps, I'm a fairly crafty person (I try anyway), I have crafty friends/family who have crafty friends/family. So I created a Facebook group in order to facilitate future swaps (hopefully). Here's the link in case you, my dear readers (trying to ignore the echo), want to sign up and try it: Crafty Swaps . Just click on join group and send me a message and I'll approve ya. I really want this to take off. My past experience is that it is really hard getting something like this started and even harder to keep it going.
I want to do simple swaps: dishcloths, quilt blocks, scarves, etc..; nothing that would take more then a couple hours to put together and be small enough that shipping is cheap. It's nice to get something besides junk mail and bills in the mailbox. I probably would set up monthly themes: Christmas ornaments in November, Fall colors for October, Winter colors for December, Valentines for January, Flowers for February, Rain/water for March, Gardening/Mothers for April, Fathers/Grad/Wedding for May, Summer for June, Back to School for July, Animals/Pets for August, Random for September. Every month has a theme that would work for the following month because if we did say Christmas in December then you would get the swap at the end of the month in time for it to be put away. So this way if you get a Christmas themed swap at the end of November you can enjoy it for the month of December and so on for each month. I would also either have that months swap being a knit/crochet item...or do two different swaps a month and members could choose one or both of them. I know some people knit/crochet but don't sew or vice versa. That will work itself out as people join the group.

Friday, May 06, 2011

I really do, my posted grades so far look like this A, D, A, B+...with a possible A- and B(?) soon to be posted. That D that is just screaming at me is in General Chemistry I. Yep I failed, again. It's a bit better then last semester, but it's still not a passing grade. I need at least a C- to pass, to move on...I failed to do that. Why am I struggling so much? I know it's partly(mostly) my fault. There were some online homework sets that I didn't do that may of been enough to bring me to passing. I didn't do them because I kept missing the deadlines. The professor would open one on, say, Wednesday afternoon at 1pm. Then close it on Monday at 8am. The next one would be open on a Friday at 8am and close the next Friday at 2pm. There was no, (shoot what word am I thinking of), no set schedule of when homework would be assigned and when it would be due. Sometimes he didn't tell us until the day it was due that he had opened it up. One homework set was opened and due within a couple hours of it being opened. So I missed nearly half of the assignments because of that. I would go to the website to check and find out I had missed the cutoff by minutes.
Will I try again? Yes, I cannot let that grade set on my record. I've read of med students who took Gen Chem 4 or 5 times and still got accepted, but I'm not sure I'll be that fortunate. I've got so much not going for me. Sometimes I feel like I picked too big a mountain to climb. Just finishing my bachelor's and giving up that dream sometimes looks good. I will feel like shit if I do that (to put it bluntly). I'll have to live my life knowing I failed. I'll live the rest of my life feeling like I failed not only myself, but my husband, my children, my family, my coworkers, my friends. Also those future patients who I dreamed of making their lives easier, healthier, better. At this point I think Atlas has less weight on his shoulders then I do.